State suggests massive sentences for Joneses

X BROTHERS Ian and Chris Jones should each be sent to prison for 95 years for the armed robbery, kidnapping and murder that they committed in Windhoek in early 2002, the State prosecutor in their trial suggested in the High Court on Friday.

Not only that, but Ian Jones should also be given an additional five-year jail term for having crossed Namibia’s border with South Africa without a legal passport shortly after he and his elder brother had robbed, kidnapped and murdered businessman Gero Schaum on the night of February 14 2002, State advocate Leonie Dunn argued before Judge Sylvester Mainga. The two brothers and two co-accused, who have been on trial with them, will be sentenced tomorrow.Ian and Chris Jones, aged 27 and 29 respectively, were convicted of murder, kidnapping and housebreaking with the intention to rob and robbery with aggravating circumstances on Wednesday.Ian Jones was also found guilty of leaving Namibia without a passport.Items worth N$911 840 – including N$880 000 in cash – were stolen from Schaum’s house during the robbery, the court found.A cousin of the Joneses, Magnum Smith (24), and a friend of his, Johannes Pelser (40), were found guilty of obstructing the course of justice.Ian Jones had handed a briefcase containing a firearm to Smith while he was passing through Rosh Pinah, where Smith and Pelser worked, on his way to South Africa shortly after Schaum’s murder.Smith in turn handed these items to Pelser, who threw the gun into the Orange River and discarded the briefcase at a dumping site at Rosh Pinah when Smith asked him to destroy the articles.The gun is suspected to have been the weapon with which Schaum was murdered.Schaum was 59 years old when he was shot in the head in the Brakwater area, where the Joneses had taken him when they kidnapped him.”The court can just imagine what went through his mind at that stage,” when he first found himself being held at gunpoint on his return to his home in Van Coller Street, Klein Windhoek, on the evening of February 14 2002, Dunn remarked during her address to the court.”It is indisputable that the deceased died a cruel death,” she told the Judge.Dunn called Schaum’s widow, Katja Schaum, to give testimony in aggravation of sentence.Mrs Schaum told the court that her late husband’s death has had a severe impact on his family, and that this is a lasting impact.”I think it’s going to affect us for the rest of our lives,” she said.”Every time there’s a birthday, every time it’s Christmas, every celebration, there will be one person missing.”Said Chris Jones’s lawyer, Jorge Neves: “I’ve been asked to extend an apology for what he’s caused.He’s also said he does not wish to testify; he’s not feeling comfortable to face the court about this issue.”The brothers’ parents have also been affected heavily by their sons’ crimes, Neves said.”They are shattered by these events,” he said.”They’re ashamed of what happened.”With his client having been found to have actually pulled the trigger of the firearm with which Schaum was executed, Ian Jones’s lawyer, Lucius Murorua, faced an uphill task in arguing that the younger Jones should receive clemency from the court.He holds instructions from Ian Jones “to convey his remorse to this court,” Murorua told the Judge.”He asks for your mercy.”Sarel Maritz, representing Smith and Pelser, told the Judge that his clients had co-operated fully with the Police and assisted where they could with the investigation of the case.There was no need to send either of them to prison, he said.The two brothers and two co-accused, who have been on trial with them, will be sentenced tomorrow.Ian and Chris Jones, aged 27 and 29 respectively, were convicted of murder, kidnapping and housebreaking with the intention to rob and robbery with aggravating circumstances on Wednesday.Ian Jones was also found guilty of leaving Namibia without a passport.Items worth N$911 840 – including N$880 000 in cash – were stolen from Schaum’s house during the robbery, the court found.A cousin of the Joneses, Magnum Smith (24), and a friend of his, Johannes Pelser (40), were found guilty of obstructing the course of justice.Ian Jones had handed a briefcase containing a firearm to Smith while he was passing through Rosh Pinah, where Smith and Pelser worked, on his way to South Africa shortly after Schaum’s murder.Smith in turn handed these items to Pelser, who threw the gun into the Orange River and discarded the briefcase at a dumping site at Rosh Pinah when Smith asked him to destroy the articles.The gun is suspected to have been the weapon with which Schaum was murdered.Schaum was 59 years old when he was shot in the head in the Brakwater area, where the Joneses had taken him when they kidnapped him.”The court can just imagine what went through his mind at that stage,” when he first found himself being held at gunpoint on his return to his home in Van Coller Street, Klein Windhoek, on the evening of February 14 2002, Dunn remarked during her address to the court.”It is indisputable that the deceased died a cruel death,” she told the Judge.Dunn called Schaum’s widow, Katja Schaum, to give testimony in aggravation of sentence.Mrs Schaum told the court that her late husband’s death has had a severe impact on his family, and that this is a lasting impact.”I think it’s going to affect us for the rest of our lives,” she said.”Every time there’s a birthday, every time it’s Christmas, every celebration, there will be one person missing.”Said Chris Jones’s lawyer, Jorge Neves: “I’ve been asked to extend an apology for what he’s caused.He’s also said he does not wish to testify; he’s not feeling comfortable to face the court about this issue.”The brothers’ parents have also been affected heavily by their sons’ crimes, Neves said.”They are shattered by these events,” he said.”They’re ashamed of what happened.”With his client having been found to have actually pulled the trigger of the firearm with which Schaum was executed, Ian Jones’s lawyer, Lucius Murorua, faced an uphill task in arguing that the younger Jones should receive clemency from the court.He holds instructions from Ian Jones “to convey his remorse to this court,” Murorua told the Judge.”He asks for your mercy.”Sarel Maritz, representing Smith and Pelser, told the Judge that his clients had co-operated fully with the Police and assisted where they could with the investigation of the case.There was no need to send either of them to prison, he said.